Catholic schools offer ‘that other dimension,’ CSJ teacher says
January 29, 2010 by Sarah
Sister Pauline Kukula teaches an eighth-grade religion class earlier this month at Sacred Heart Junior-Senior High School in Salina.
(Originally published in The Register of the Salina Diocese, Jan. 29, 2010)
By Doug Weller
The Register
SALINA — After teaching 40 years in the Diocese of Salina, Sister Pauline Kukula says her love for education and her students hasn’t diminished.
Neither has her support for Catholic schools.
“We have good public schools here, but we have that other dimension,” she said.
That dimension — obviously — is a Catholic environment and religious instruction.
Catholic schools in the diocese will be celebrating that difference next week during Catholic Schools Week.
As the junior high religion teacher at Sacred Heart Junior-Senior High School in Salina, Sister Pauline is intimately involved in her students’ catechesis.
A Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia, she teaches six classes a day, a total of about 100 students, plus is in charge of daily prayer services and other activities.
“Religion class is an important part of their day, as is the Catholic environment of the school,” Sister Pauline said, and she credits her fellow faculty members and staff for providing that.
Junior high is a great age to teach, she said, calling her students “delightful.”
“They’re good kids. St. Mary’s Grade School lays a marvelous foundation. What they get there, they come to me, and I carry on,” she said.
The challenge, she noted, is trying to reach every student.
“There are kids who are going to go to college, but a good percentage do not, so you have to teach the whole gamut. You have to give different prayer experiences, different learning experiences,” she said.
“God’s infinite expressions are in all those kids. That’s a mystical experience. They all have different talents and expressions,” she added.
She’s still teaching because “you know where you’re called. … It’s a wonderful place here, to walk hand-in-hand with Christ every day,” she said.
